What does each of the greek alphabets mean?

Question

Like for example, I know delta means "change of", but change of what.

Answer 1

Letters of Greek alphabet

Preliminary notes:
** Devan is mistaken about "theta" -- the Greek word for death is "thanatos".
** I assume you mean the ORIGINAL meaning of the letter NAMES, not symbolic or mystical meanings that were later assigned to the letters.

Well, you may be disappointed in the answer, but MOST of the names of the letters of the Greek alphabet meant absolutely nothing at the time the alphabet was formed!

1) First, I'll note the four exceptions:
"epsilon" and "upsilon" meant "simple e" and "simple u" respectively
"omicron" means "small o"; "omega" means "large o"

2) It is true that in LATER times a number of the letter names were made into words:

a) in Greek itself there are only three examples I know of :

"delta", because of its triangular shape, became associated with the islands formed by the end waters of the Nile and other rivers when they split up into branches (later to be used in our modern sense of the whole area at such a river's end)
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/delta

"alpha" and "omega" --because they were the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet came to be used, especially TOGETHER, as "first and last" or "beginning and end". (The earliest such use I know of is in the first century AD, where it appears in the first chapter or the Revelation of John [the New Testament])

b) other names that came FROM the Greek words are mostly MODERN inventions, based mainly on the use of these letters in math and science, esp. for referring to items in a sequence (e.g., particles).

This accounts for things like "delta" for an increment (or "change" as you mention), "gamma rays"

c) a few modern uses of other sorts:

"iota" -- this, like its Semitic/Phoenician counterpart "yod" was the smallest letter. Base on a statement of Jesus (in Greek in Matthew 5) it came to be used for "the smallest detail" (It is the "jot" of "jot and tittle" as the KJV renders it -- Jesus declared that no jot [the least letter] or tittle [smallest stroke of a pen, used to distinguish similar letters] would pass away away from the Law till all was fulfilled.)
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/iota

"alpha male" (a VERY recent creation!)


3) As for the source & meaning of the ORIGINAL names -- as noted above, only four of them had ANY meaning in Greek. The rest were mostly borrowed (with some slight adaptations to the patterns of Greek speech) from the PHOENICIAN alphabet. In other words, the Greek borrowed the SEMITIC names for the letters along with the letters themselves. In many cases, the Semitic words DID have a meaning. . . but their Greek adaptations were meaningless!

Thus (omitting the four already listed) we find:
aleph (Semitic for "ox") --> alpha
beth ("house") --> beta
gimmel --> gamma
daleth --> delta
zayin --> zeta ?! [the ending imitates that of the following three letters]
(c)heth --> eta
tet --> theta
yod --> iota
kaph --> kappa
lamed --> lambda
mem, nun --> mu, nu [simplified to rhyme]
peh --> pi [pronounced "pEE", as were all the others with "i" endings]
resh --> rho ? - simplified to the letter-sound + vowel (cf. mu, nu; and pi, etc. below)-- just the way WE do with most of the letters of our alphabet (similarly meaningless!);
samek --> sigma
tau --> tau
Gk. xi, phi, psi -- two may be letters invented by the Greeks; but the names are the letter-sound + vowel,imitating pi

Answer 2

Wow ! What a question ! I heard some fans of ancient greece, advertising their book with all the secret meanings of the ancient greek alphabet but I can't remember anything more at the moment. I'll check on that.
The only letter that I'm sure about is Gamma. It's about two coming one, just like sex or love.

Answer 3

Α :human,begginin
B:supremacy,violence
Γ:write, give birth, dig, scratch
Δ:force, trial for justice
E:Ε!» calling, redirecting, pushing.
Z:joining for strength
H:brightness
Θ:meaning broad vision and mind
I:direction, support, retention
K:cutting, Splitting
Λ:spoken word
M:mother
N:reside,new
Ξ:processing wool,stranger
O:home
Π:breath
P:movement, rhythm
Σ:shake
T:skill-technique
Y:cavity
Φ:light
X:chaos
Ψ:touch,soul
Ω:ocean

http://www.petra.gr/alphabet/
very good sites,you will find all the meaningful extensions

Answer 4

Alpha - beginning
Omega - end
Theta - Death

...i only know those three because I saw them on "Law & Order" the other night ^_~